Disparity Between U.S. vs. Iran Military Spending

My latest cross-post from Greenwald has to do with a small excerpt from one of his articles and the graph he included in it. The graph highlights U.S vs. Iran military spending. What’s most alarming isn’t that the difference in spending is so large (though of course it’s indeed scary), but that the U.S., with the support of Israel, engages in a propaganda campaign to paint Iran as the biggest threat to world peace.

I turn to Greenwald to show just how unequal the U.S. military is to Iran’s military.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database, Iran’s total annual military spending is $7 billion; an increase of 127% would take it to $15.8 billion — also known as: less than 2% of total U.S. military spending (which was $698 billion for fiscal year 2010). According to Defense News, Iran’s official military budget for 2011 is actually $12 billion; an increase of 127% would bring it to $27.2 billion, also known as: less than 4% of U.S. military spending. Taking the largest number possible for Iranian military spending (the one provided by Defense News), behold the frightening, Nazi-like military threat Iran poses:

U.S. vs. Iran military spending

It’s also worth reading Greenwald’s piece on the real reason the U.S. wants to strike Iran. It has little to do with the nuclear weapon because, as any sane person knows, Iran would be committing political suicide by dropping a nuclear bomb on, say, Israel.